Student Sues Parents and Loses In New Jersey

A New Jersey judge has denied a teenage girl’s request for immediate financial assistance from her parents. Eighteen year old, Rachel Canning, is a high school senior who filed a lawsuit against her parents for financial support and college tuition. Canning says her mother and father kicked her out of their home in New Jersey and that she is unable to support herself without their help. In full, her lawsuit asks them to pay the rest of her tuition for her private high school, pay for her current living expenses, and commit to paying for her college tuition. The icing on the cake is that she asked them to pay for her legal fees for the suit she filed against them.
Canning’s parents say that she left home because she did not want to follow the rules of their home. The Judge ruling on the case, Peter Bogaard, denied Canning her request for high school tuition and current living expenses in the NJ State Superior Court. The case will be heard again in April to determine whether Canning left the home on her own or not.
Rachel Canning is a cheerleader and honors student and claims that she left her parents house because of emotional and psychological mistreatment. She claims that her mother called her fat and that her father stated he was going to beat her. Canning moved out of her parents house in October 2013 and has been staying with a friend ever since. Her friend’s parents, John and Amy Inglesino, have been paying for her legal fees as she sues her parents for support.
Canning’s parents, Sean and Elizabeth Canning, state that her claims of abuse are unfounded. They have added that she and her boyfriend were suspended last October after skipping school. After they told Rachel she was no longer allowed to see her boyfriend, she moved out of the house. Rachel’s mother, Elizabeth says that she was not kicked out of the house but she “took it upon herself to run away so that she could live her life without any parental supervision and without any rules.”
The New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP) has investigated the Rachel’s claims of abuse and “determined that allegation of emotional abuse was unfounded” after speaking to Rachel, her parents, and her two younger sisters.
The future of the case hangs on whether Rachel Canning is considered emancipated or not. Although a judge ruled against her for providing high school tuition (the school will let her finish her last semester anyway) there is still more to be determined in this case.